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before rulers and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them. 10 And the gospel must first be published Luke xii. 11. among all nations. 11 c But when they shall lead you,

c Matt. x. 19.

e

and deliver you up, take no thought beforehand what ye shall speak, neither do ye premeditate: but whatsoever shall be given you in that hour, that speak ye for it is not ye that speak, but the Holy Ghost. 12 Now the Matt. x. 21. brother shall betray the brother to death, and the father the son; and children shall rise up against their parents, and shall y cause them to be put to death.

d Acts ii. 4: iv. 8, 31.

e Micah vil. 6.

Matt. x. 22.
Rev. ii. 10.

13 And

g

ye shall f Dan. xii. 12. be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he that z shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. 14 But g DAN. ix 27. When ye shall see the abomination of desolation, [a s spoken of by Daniel the prophet,] standing where it ought not, (let him that readeth understand,) then let them that be in Judæa flee to the mountains: 15 and let him that is on the housetop not go down into the house, neither enter therein, to take any thing out of his house: 16 and let him that is in the field not turn back again for to take up his garment. h Luke xxiii. 17 h But woe to them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days! 18 And pray ye that your flight 19 i For [in] those days shall be affliction, such as was not from the beginning of the creation which God created unto this time, neither shall be. 20 And except that the Lord had shortened those days, no flesh should be saved: but for the elect's sake, whom he hath chosen, he hath shortened the days. 21 And then if any man shall say to you, Lo, here is Christ; or, render, the nations. render, to deliver you up.

29.

i Dan. ix. 26: be not in the winter.

xii. 1. Joel

ii. 2.

y render, put them to death.
Z render, hath endured.
bomit: not in the original.
d render, the days.

has the emphasis-let your care be .

...

11.] St. Mark has vv. 10, 11 peculiar to himself. St. Luke (vv. 14, 15) has something very like them-St. Matthew nothing but they occur Matt. x. 19, where see note. 12.] This is expressed by "then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another," Matthew, ver. 10. 13.] hath endured, viz. in the confession implied by for my name's sake preceding.

14.] where it ought not -see note on Matthew, ver. 15. This is a less definite

a omit.

c render, hath not been.
render, have been.

description of the place than we find there.

18.] St. Matthew adds, "nor on the sabbath day." St. Mark wrote mostly for Gentile readers, and thus perhaps was not likely to report this. 19, 20.] the creation which God created and the elect's sake, whom he hath chosen, peculiarities of St. Mark's style in reporting our Lord's discourses, for greater solemnity. John xvii. 26, John v. 16, cited strangely by Mr. Elliott to disprove this, are no cases in point. In both those, the expression is necessary to the sense: here, and

lo, [the is] there; believe [him] not: 22 for [88 false Christs and] false prophets shall rise, and shall shew signs and wonders, to seduce, if it were possible, even the elect.

k

Zeph. 1. 15.

m Dan. vii. 13, 14. Matt.

1

ch. xiv. 62. Acts i. 11.

Thess. iv.
7. 10. Rev.

16. 2 Thess.

i. 7.

23 But take ye heed: [hh behold,] I have foretold you all k 2 Pet. iii. 17. things. 241 But in those days, after that tribulation, the1 Dan vii. 10. sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light. 25 i And the stars ii of heaven shall fall, and the powers that are in heaven shall be shaken. 26 m And then shall they see the Son of man coming in the clouds with great power and glory. 27 And then shall he send his angels, and shall gather together i his elect from the four winds, from the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of heaven. 28 Now learn jj a parable of the fig tree; When her branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is near: 29 so ye in like manner, when ye shall see these things come to pass, know that it is nigh, even at the doors. 30 Verily I say unto you, that this generation shall not kk pass, till all these things be done. 31 Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away. 32 But of that day n Isa. xl. 8. land [that] hour knoweth no man, no, not an the angels

which are in heaven,

f not in the original.

neither the Son, but the Father.

gor, it not expressed in the original.

gg omitted in some ancient MSS., and probably inserted from Matt. xxiv. 24.

h

read, work.

hh omit.

ii render, shall be falling from heaven. jj render, the parable from the fig-tree: cometh tender. k read, it is known. 1 read, or. m omit: not in the original. nn read, an angel in heaven. usually in St. Mark, it is merely idiomatic.

24.] The opening word is more than the simple but?' and is best rendered by howbeit or nevertheless: as if it were, though I have forewarned you of all things, yet some of those shall be so terrible as to astound even the best prepared among you." in those days, after that tribulation-then those days come after that tribulation: : see note on Matthew, ver. 29.

Our Evangelist omits the mourning of the tribes of the earth, and the seeing the sign of the Son of Man. 27.

from the uttermost part of the earth,
from the extremity of the visible plane of
the earth, shall the collecting begin: and
shall proceed to the uttermost part of
heaven, to the point where the sky touches
that plane on the other side.
VOL. I.

28.]

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When

now her branch be

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kk render, pass away. render, for perspicuity, none. render, nor even.

her, emphatic, when her branch... con-
veying an a fortiori in the application.
If in so humble an example as the fig-tree
you discern the nearness of a season,
much rather should you in these sure and
awful signs discern the approach of the
end.
30.] this generation-see on
Matthew, ver. 34. 32.] This is one of
those things which the Father hath put
in his own power, Acts i. 7, and with
which the Son, in his mediatorial office,
is not acquainted: see on Matthew. We
must not deal unfaithfully with a plain
and solemn assertion of our Lord (and
what can be more so than nor even the
Son, in which by the nor even He is not
below but above the angels ?) by such
evasions as "He does not know it so as
to reveal it to us," or as Aug., "He did
T

Luke xii. 40.
Rom. xiii. 11.

p Matt. xxv. 14.

o Matt. xxv. 18. 33 Take ye heed, watch [00 and pray]: for ye know not 1 Thess. v. 6. When the time is. 31 [p P For the Son of man is] as a man PP taking a far journey, who left his house, and gave authority to his servants, [and] to every man his work, and commanded the porter to watch. 35 Watch 35 Watch ye therefore : for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, 99 at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning 36 lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping. 37 And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch.

a see Luke vii. 37.

XIV. 1 After two days was the feast of the passover, and of unleavened bread: and the chief priests and the scribes sought how they might take him by craft, and put him to death. 2 rr But they said, Not on the feast day, lest there be an uproar of the people.

3 a And ss being in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at meat, there came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard very precious; and 00 omitted in several ancient authorities. P not expressed in the original. PP the original has only, going from home: see on Matt. xxv. 14. 99 read, whether at.

qomit.

r render, the passover, and the [feast of] unleavened bread.
rr read, for. render, during the feast. ss render, when he was.

not so know it as then to indicate it to
the disciples." Of such a sense there is
not a hint in the context: nay, it is alto-
gether alien from it. The account given
by the orthodox Lutherans, as represented
by Meyer, that our Lord knew this by
possession, but not by use, is right enough,
if at the same time it is carefully remem-
bered, that it was this possession of which
He emptied Himself when He became man
for us, and which it belongs to the very
essence of His mediatorial kingdom to hold
in subjection to the Father. 33-37.]
Peculiar to Mark, and containing the con-
densed matter of Matthew, vv. 43-47, and
perhaps an allusion to the parable of the
talents in Matt. xxv.
The porter is
the door-porter, whose office it would be
to look out for approaching travellers,-
answering especially to the ministers of
the word, who are (Ezek. xxxiii.) watch-
men to God's church.

CHAP. XIV. 1, 2.] CONSPIRACY OF THE JEWISH AUTHORITIES AGAINST JESUS. Matt. xxvi. 1-5. Luke xxii. 1, 2. The account of the events preceding the passion in our Gospel takes a middle rank between those of St. Matthew and St. Luke. It contains very few words which are not to be found in one or other of them; but at the same time the variations from both

are so frequent and irregular, as in my
opinion wholly to preclude the idea that
St. Mark had ever seen either. The
minute analysis of any passage in the
three will, I think, convince an unpre-
judiced examiner of this. On the
chronological difficulties which beset this
part of the Gospel history, see note
on Matt. xxvi. 17.
1. the pass-

over, and [feast of] unleavened bread]
classed together, because the time of eat-
ing the Passover was actually the com-
mencement of the feast of unleavened
bread. The announcement by our Lord
of his approaching death (Matt. xxvi. 2)
is omitted by St. Mark and St. Luke.

3-9.] THE ANOINTING AT BETHANY. Matt. xxvi. 6-13. John xii. 1-8. (On Luke vii. 36-50, see note there.) The whole narrative has remarkable points of similarity with that of St. John, -and has been used as one of the indications that St. Mark had knowledge of and used the Gospel of St. John. My own view leads me to a different conclusion. already remarked (note on Matt. xxvi. 3), that while St. Matthew seems to have preserved trace of the parenthetic nature of this narrative, such trace altogether fails in our account. It proceeds as if con3. spikenard] The original,

tinuous.

I have

she brake the box, and poured it on his head. 4 And there were some that had indignation within themselves, [t and said, Why was this waste of the ointment made?] 5 For tt it might have been sold for more than three hundred pence, and have been given to the poor. And they murmured against her. 6 And Jesus said, Let her alone; why trouble ye her? she hath wrought a good work on me. 7 For ye have the poor with you always, breut. xv. 11. and whensoever ye will ye may do them good: but me ye have not always. 8 She hath done what she could: ▾ she is come aforehand to anoint my body to the burying. 9 vvVerily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, this also that she hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her.

10 And Judas Iscariot, ww one of the twelve, went unto the chief priests, to betray him unto them. 11 And when they heard [it], they were glad, and promised to give him money. And he sought how he might conveniently betray him.

t read, to what purpose this waste of the ointment had been made. tt read, this ointment.

u render, denarii.

▾ render, she hath by anticipation anointed. V read, But verily.
W read, the.
WW literally, the one, or that one, of the twelve.
also common to John, but as addressed to
Judas. 7.] The agreement verbatim
here of Matthew and John, whereas our
narrative inserts the additional clause and
whensoever ye will ye may do them good,
is decisive against the idea that St. Mark
compiled his account from the other two.
In these words there appears to be a
reproach conveyed to Judas, and perhaps
an allusion to the office of giving to the
poor being his. 8.] We have here again
a striking addition peculiar to Mark.

literally rendered, is as Bishop Jeremy
Taylor has it in his Life of Christ, § 15,
"nard pistick." But it is quite uncertain
what this epithet "pistick" means. The
discussion may be seen in my Greek Tes-
tament. Here I can only state that the
two possible explanations are (1) genuine,
unadulterated; and (2) liquid, or drink-
able. There clearly appears to have been
a certain sort of ointment which they
drank: see citations as above. The word
is nowhere found in the classics, only here
and in the parallel place in St. John, and
some later writers.
brake the box
can hardly mean only having broken the
resin with which the cork was sealed.
ch. v. 4, John xix. 36, Rev. ii. 27, the
word is used of breaking, properly so
called and I see no objection to supposing
that the box (i. e. of course the narrow
neck of it) was crushed in the hand, and
the ointment thus poured over His head.
The feet would then (John xii. 3) be
anointed with what remained on the hands
of Mary, or in the broken vase (see note
on Luke vii. 38). 4, 5. some] See
notes on Matthew. The three hundred
denarii is common to our narrative and
that of St. John. 6.] Let her alone,

In

She hath done what she could: a similar
praise to that given to the poor widow, ch.
xii. 44-" she cast in all that she had." We
have also the expression she hath by anti-
cipation anointed, shewing, as I have
observed on Matthew, that the act was
one of prospective love, grounded on the
deepest apprehension of the reality of our
Lord's announcement of His approaching
death.
9.] See notes on Matthew

ver. 13.

10, 11.] COMPACT OF JUDAS WITH THE CHIEF PRIESTS TO BETRAY HIM. Matt. xxvi. 14-16. Luke xxii. 3-6. The only matters requiring notice are, the words when they heard [it], i. e. the proposal,' -and promised, implying, as does the

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12 And the first day of unleavened bread, when they killed the passover, his disciples said unto him, Where wilt thou that we go and prepare that thou mayest eat the passover? 13 And he sendeth forth two of his disciples, and saith unto them, Go ye into the city, and there shall meet you a man bearing a pitcher of water: follow him. 14 And wheresoever he shall go in, say ye to the goodman of the house, The Master saith, Where is the guestchamber, where I shall eat the passover with my disciples? 15 And he will shew you a large upper room furnished and prepared: there make ready for us. 16 And his disciples went forth, and came into the city, and found as he had said unto them and they made ready the passover. 17 And in the evening he cometh with the twelve. 18 And as they sat and did eat, Jesus said, Verily I say unto you, One of you which eateth with me shall betray me. 19 And they began to be sorrowful, and to say unto him one by one, Is it I? and another [said], Is it I? i.e. the householder. a render, shall betray me, he that eateth with me. b not in the original.

a

y read, my.

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when they killed the passover, like St. Luke's expression "when the passover must be killed," denotes the ordinary day, when they (i. e. the Jews) sacrificed the Passover; for that the Lord ate His Passover on that day, and at the usual time, is the impression conveyed by the testimony of the three Evangelists: see notes on Matthew ver. 17, and Luke ver. 7. We may notice that if this Gospel, as traditionally reported, was drawn up under the superintendence of Peter, we could hardly have failed to have the names of the two disciples given ;-nor again would our narrator have missed (and the omission is an important one) the fact that the Lord first gave the command, to go and prepare the Passover-which St. Luke only relates.

It becomes a duty to warn students of the sacred word against fanciful interpretations. A respected Commentator of

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Z read, and there.

our own day explains the pitcher of water, which led the way to the room where the last Supper was celebrated, to mean "the baptismal grace which we have "in earthen vessels," which "leads on to other graces, even to the communion of Christ's Body and Blood." 15.] In the midst of a verbal accordance with Luke we have here inserted prepared, indicating that the guest-chamber was already prepared for the celebration of the Passover, as would indeed be probable at this time in Jerusalem. The disciples had therefore only to get ready the Passover itself.

17-21.] JESUS, CELEBRATING THE PASSOVER, ANNOUNCES HIS BETRAYAL BY ONE OF THE TWELVE. Matt. xxvi. 20 -25. Luke xxii. 14 (21-23). John xiii. 21 ff. The account of St. Luke (ver. 16) supplies the important saying of our Lord respecting the fulfilment of the two parts of the Passover feast-see notes there. After our ver. 17, comes in the washing of the disciples' feet by the Lord as related in John xiii. 1-20. The words he that eateth with me are peculiar to Mark, and, as we have seen before, bear a relation to St. John's account, where our Lord had just before cited "he that eateth bread with me," &c. ver. 18. They do not point out any particular per

18.]

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